Hello again! What was gonna be our blog entry for Friday ended up happening on Saturday. The reason? No propane gas in our kitchen...So frustrating to have everything prepared but not being able to cook. As for some who may wonder why we didn't just order one, Friday is a day off here and even if we did order it would take forever to come, so we decided to go out :) Saturday, although a busy busy day, still left us some time for cooking at the end of it. We came back home from the gym in the early evening hours and we had time to cook everything, which proves that this dish needs little time to become delicious! So it is about sardines today...and they are getting married...Typical dish in Greece actually called "married sardines" because they are opened up in butterfly shape, one meets the other and they become a couple! They do have something to connect them, a binding force let's say that adds to their taste. But first thing first, and let's talk a little about sardines. Once a poor man's fish in Greece, today they are still fairly cheap but their price has still increased because of overfishing in the Mediterranean and the rest of the world I'm sure. In Greece it is the summer IT food in every tavern. Grilled are the best if you ask me, but people tend to eat them fried and also the "married" way. They are rich in Omega-3 and you get to avoid all these heavy metals that you would find in other rich in Omega-3 fish like salmon. For Kostas it is his favourite fish and I mean he can eat it every day that's how much he likes it. For me, I like it a lot as well but since I get to clean them and cook them most of the time I can't stand the smell that stays forever in my hands. But that's what I get for not being able to work with gloves. Nonetheless, it is a very tasty fish. Beats the hell out of mahi mahi or any other large fish fillet! This recipe uses true Mediterannean flavours. We have of course the sardine but then we also have the yellow fava cream. In Greece there is one yellow fava that is well known for its quality and it is from Santorini island. It is basically yellow split pea that you boil to create a thick or creamy in our case mash that accompanies the sardines. It can also be eaten by itself and it is always eaten cold from the fridge, never warm. Fava does not have to be from Santorini to taste in my opinion equally good. If you do get a chance and get Santorini fava then all good but if not it is not a big deal. Now I would not say the same for the sardines...I personally think that sardines in the Mediterranean are the best. They are the right size and you can taste the sea in them. I have not been able to find sardines that taste like that anywhere else I have visited or lived but if you do find them in your local market try to get the smallest size you can get and this dish can become delicious! I found those ones in the fish market here in UAE and they turned out very well! :)We hope you enjoy this recipe as it is, we think, truly authentic.Kali Oreksi!

Married sardines with fava cream

Ingredients

For the fava:

1 cup of yellow split peas

4 cups of water

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

1 medium onion sliced thinly

4 tbs olive oil

For the sardines:

10 sardines

1 whole head of garlic

1 lemon

2 tbs chopped fresh parsley

1 tbs fresh chopped thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

for more information on how to make the married sardines with fava cream please clickhere

Greek cuisine has a long tradition and its flavors change with the season and its geography. Greek cookery, historically a forerunner of Western cuisine, spread its culinary influence - via ancient Rome - throughout Europe and beyond. It has influences from the different people's cuisine the Greeks have interacted with over the centuries, as evidenced by several types of sweets and cooked foods.

It was Archestratos in 320 B.C. who wrote the first cookbook in history. Greece has a culinary tradition of some 4,000 years.Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality and was founded on the "Mediterranean triad": wheat, olive oil, and wine, with meat being rarely eaten and fish being more common. This trend in Greek diet continued in Roman and Ottoman times and changed only fairly recently when technological progress has made meat more available. Wine and olive oil have always been a central part of it and the spread of grapes and olive trees in the Mediterranean and further afield is correlated with Greek colonization.